Be Careful What You Wish For
by Inigo Montoya
Summary: Severus thought he knew what he wanted in life. That is, until the Mirror of Erised said otherwise...


In Which The Mirror is Dealt With  
  
Author's Note: This is my first fic, so please review. I definitely want to improve, so let me know how I'm doing. Specifically, I'm looking to the masteful pigwidgeon37, and quillusion to help me out here -- I'm personally a huge fan of The Sybil's Oracle, and Soul Searching, though I don't expect to come anywhere close to your writing abilities.  
  
Oh, and it'll eventually be R, don't worry. I'm a busy man, so updates may be well spaced out, but I'll try to be as frequent as I can. And in case anyone was wondering YES, THIS IS SS/HG. Snape is my hero, and Hermione is hoT (hot with a capital T).  
  
Oh, and a big shoutout to MORGAN! Who, were Snape not already with Hermione, would definitely be Snape's girlfriend :)  
  
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In a cavernous chamber deep in the foundations of the castle that housed Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, stood two robed and cloaked wizards. One, tall, raven-haired and dark eyed, wearing long black robes and sporting a menacing scowl across his pale visage. The other, shorter, but by no means short, was a man with blue eyes and a long white beard that spoke of great age. Grave of face, he turned to his black-haired companion.  
  
"That Lord Voldemort was able to so penetrate the wards of this castle, and my trust, grieves me greatly. We must be doubly on our guard, Severus - plainly, the castle of itself cannot protect these children."  
  
"Albus," replied the black-haired man bitterly, "yes, Quirrell's actions show that the castle wards are not the panacea we thought them to be; nevertheless, this fiasco remains Potter's doing - he should have come to one of us fir- "  
  
"Enough Severus! Harry saved us all."  
  
"And almost got himself killed in the process - I grow tired of saving the boy"  
  
The wizard with the blue eyes, whose name was Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, sighed lightly, shook his head in resignation, and responded quietly, "I suppose I'm not going to ever get you to like the boy, Severus. Please continue to watch over him though"  
  
Severus - to most people Professor Severus Snape, Hogwarts Potion Master, or 'that greasy git,' when he wasn't within earshot - felt his features soften as a bit of regret at having vexed Albus, who he loved like a father. He chose his words carefully before responding, as befit a Slytherin: "I'll keep watching out for the boy, even though he is already disturbingly similar to his father."  
  
Dumbledore still wasn't fully pleased - Snape's distaste for James Potter, Harry's father, bordered on the obsessive - but chose to let the matter drop. In the chamber with the two stood one other object, a free-standing mirror, as tall as either of the two wizards. To this mirror Dumbledore now walked, standing before it and running his hands gently across the inscription that ran along the mirror's silver border: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. 'Yes,' Albus thought to himself, a slight smile crossing his face, 'truly, this mirror thwarted Lord Voldemort nearly as much as Harry did.'  
  
The Mirror Erised, for such was its name, had only a few short hours before, hindered Professor Quirrell, teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, from acquiring what it protected: The Sorcerer's Stone, the object the field of Alchemy was devoted to developing, a magical object that turned all base metal it touched to gold, and produced the Elixir of Life, granter of immortality. Quirrell had sought for the stone in service of his master, Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who, in a mysterious accident eleven years before, had been reduced to spirit form while trying to kill a baby named Harry Potter, whose parents he had already just slain. Voldemort, had Quirrell acquired the stone for him, would have used the stone to regain his body, but the Mirror of Erised, for this very reason, would not permit Quirrell success: the Mirror of Erised was enchanted to do only one thing - to show one's heart's desire. The Sorcerer's Stone had been placed for safekeeping inside the mirror's enchantment, with the condition that it would only be yielded by the mirror to one for whom that desire that the mirror showed was to keep the stone safe, and not to use it. Harry Potter, now a first-year student at Hogwarts, had become aware of a plan to steal the Sorcerer's Stone, and together with his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, had passed through all the preceding traps, till at last Harry, alone, faced Quirrell and the Mirror in the chamber deep under Hogwarts. Harry had been made by Quirrell to look into the mirror, and, his heart filled with the desire to keep to stone from Quirrell, had retrieved it. He had successfully fought off Professor Quirrell long enough for Professors Dumbledore and Snape to come to Harry's aid, but had almost died in the process, and had been taken to the medical tower. Quirrell had not survived.  
  
"Now," Professor Dumbledore said, breaking the silence and the two wizards' mental replaying of the evening's events, "what remains to be determined is this: what is to be done with this mirror?"  
  
Snape looked up at Dumbledore, "I suspect you're hinting at something, Albus. Do you want me to take the mirror?"  
  
Albus turned to regard his friend: "Yes, actually, Severus. There are few people I can trust with this matter. You, I would trust with my own life. Would you do me the favor of keeping the mirror in your chambers for the evening, till a suitable place can be found for it?"  
  
"Certainly, Headmaster. I'll take it now. I think I've seen enough of this...place", Snape added with a sneer, "to last me several lifetimes." Picking up the mirror with strong arms, Snape across the floor of the chamber, up the few stairs that ringed the room, and out the doorway.  
  
"Thank you, Severus!" Dumbledore called out after the departing figure, adding softly, with a twinkle in his eye that bordered on the mischievous, "I wonder what you'll see in the mirror?" 


End file.
